It seems to be one of rock’s greatest mysteries. In the chorus of “I’d Do Anything for Love,” Meatloaf states repeatedly that he would do anything for love, but that he won’t do that. But what exactly does that refer to? Continue reading
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Millions of people around the world today are drinking Guinness and wearing green, even if they’re not of recent Irish heritage. As usual I forgot to wear anything green, though I did have a pint of Guinness and a whiskey. Though the Guinness wasn’t great, probably due to the journey from Dublin to Liège. Continue reading
Ye Olde English
How do you pronounce that phrase? Some people might argue about whether the e in Olde should be pronounced, but no-one would dispute how to pronounce the other two words. Would they…?
It seems reasonable to assume (as I did for a long time) that Ye is pronounced with a y sound (as in you) at the beginning of the word, but here’s the thing:
That’s not a y. Continue reading
What is an Ide anyway, and why should I be scared of it? Continue reading
Did you know that the phrase is toe the line, and not tow the line? It’s a very common mistake, largely because to toe isn’t commonly used a verb in English, whereas to tow can be found more frequently. Plus, you can tow a line, but what does toeing a line even mean? Continue reading
After looking at the differences between the English words for animals and the meat we get from them, I was curious about the words we use for alcoholic drinks, and whether they display a similar Germanic/Latin divide. Continue reading
It seems like a long time ago when I decided to give a language-learning app a try. I’ve been busy since then, but finally this week I decided I’d download Duolinguo. I thought quite a bit about which language to choose. I knew right away that I already know enough French and Italian to make it difficult to know how much I was actually learning from the app. I thought about choosing a language as far from English as possible, but decided against this as, generally, we tend to learn languages with at least some basic similarities to our mother tongue. Most Europeans will learn another European language, which mostly have some basic links with each other. Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 